Miss Wang Weina, even your cousin won't do!

And he, the Earl of Princeton, was nothing more than a pitiful pawn, who unknowingly helped Wayne skip the stages of organizing the army and instigating the populace, rebelling under his banner, and now had to obediently hand over everything to him. As he said, he was a "great man, a great benefactor, his loyal dog, asking for nothing in return."

"Impossible. No one can calculate things that far in advance!"

The Earl of Princeton shook his head frantically, trying to reassure himself that it was all just speculation, his own delusion!

By the way, if he just calls his father now to confirm that the prisoners of the Royal Military Academy are all in his hands, then the guess that Wayne entered the country quietly through the Royal Military Academy will be disproven, and the subsequent series of terrible speculations will be nothing but pure wishful thinking on his part.

As if grasping at a straw, the Earl of Princeton thankfully pulled out his cell phone, which hadn't been given away by John because it was in his pocket, and dialed the number of the Duke of Normandy.

"beep--"

Answer it! Answer it!

"beep----"

Father, Dad, Your Grace, answer the phone, are you deaf?

"Click".

The call was finally answered, and the Earl of Princeton felt a huge weight lift from his shoulders. Overjoyed, he exclaimed:

"Father, how are the hostages you escorted doing now?"

"hostage....."

The Duke of Normandy's exhausted voice came from the other end of the microphone.

The duke, who seemed much older than when they first met, glanced around at the Great Flame Shadow Guards and elite ordinary soldiers standing beside him, their eyes flashing coldly at him. As if having made up his mind, his eyes suddenly widened.

Even if it means death, I cannot let my son fall into Prince Wayne's trap! I must warn him!

He gritted his teeth and roared into the phone:

"Run! Little Normandy, run!"

"We've failed! It was all Prince Wayne's conspiracy! Run! Preserve the last embers of the Normandy family!"

"Click—beep beep—"

The phone call was abruptly disconnected, and the Earl of Princeton's radiant smile froze on his face. The weight that should have settled in his heart continued to fall, falling, taking his heart with it into the abyss.

The heart-wrenching warning his father, the Duke of Normandy, had given him before abruptly hanging up the phone echoed repeatedly in his mind:

"This was all a conspiracy by Prince Wayne!"

"We have failed!"

After a long silence, he slumped down on the phone, let out a long sigh, and gave a bitter smile.

"Run? Where can I run to?"

"They've already come to our door!"

He looked toward the gate, where a dull knocking sound came from behind the two tightly closed sandalwood doors.

"Knock knock—" That was Wayne knocking on the door.

"Knock knock!" That's the devil knocking on the door.

"Thump thump—!" Wayne is a demon!

Chapter Seventy-Seven: The Underhanded Tactic of Using a Vest

Victoria, Princeton Earldom, main gate of the Earl's House.

Wayne looked down at the dejected young man before him, who could only manage a forced smile, and deliberately asked:

"It seems our dear Earl of Princeton hasn't had a proper rest yet? He looks so dejected; he doesn't seem like a loyal subject of the North."

Wayne paused, then lowered his voice, speaking as if in a nightmare to the Earl of Princeton:

"Or are you trying to hide something you're ashamed of?"

The Earl of Princeton's last smile froze on his face. Perhaps even he himself didn't realize how distorted his face was, with his brows furrowed yet his forced "smile" contorted. He mechanically shook his head, his teeth grinding together, and replied:

“How could that be, my esteemed Prince Wayne? As your most loyal nobleman, I am naturally...completely devoted to you.”

The Earl of Princeton said, slowly and deliberately, that he had given in.

He was furious, and he longed to lash out, to overturn the table, draw his sword, and kill the smiling Aslan royal before him with a single blow. But he was a smart man. After a quick assessment of the strength of the guards beside Wayne, he abandoned the idea. He couldn't accept a life-for-life exchange with Wayne, because that would mean the foundation he had built over the years, along with his ambition to dominate the North and become Regent Lontinim, would all turn to dust. If he couldn't escape safely, killing Wayne would be futile.

Moreover, according to his analysis, he was far from being in a dead end.

Wayne manipulated public opinion to sideline him, effectively stripping him of power without bloodshed. However, in return, Wayne's life was guaranteed by being hailed as a saint. Unless Wayne intended to be a treacherous villain who reneges on his promises and indiscriminately kills "loyal and virtuous" individuals, he would never lay a hand on himself.

With this "get-out-of-jail-free card," he could easily reorganize his strategy. The situation on the chessboard can change in an instant, and he might just have a chance to turn the tide with a single move.

But he didn't expect that even his current thoughts were exactly what Wayne had predicted.

Wayne had always understood that the Earl of Princeton, who had managed to betray his own father and incite the nobility of the entire North to rebel, was no fool. His method of killing without a knife, though sophisticated, was equally flawed. Just as the Earl of Princeton had anticipated, to a certain extent, while Wayne had seized power, he was powerless against him. However, excessive intelligence was both an advantage and a disadvantage for the Earl of Princeton.

He's smart, so he'll do everything he can to survive. He won't act desperately as Kal'tsit predicted, even if he's lost his military and political power, and even his home has been ransacked by Wayne. He'll choose to maintain the image of a loyal dog that Wayne has cultivated for him, using the public opinion that Wayne has deliberately manipulated to coerce Wayne in order to survive in this predicament.

But it was precisely this intelligence that made him arrogant, believing he could survive any desperate situation. He naively thought that public opinion, though a double-edged sword, had both undermined him and protected him. Little did he know that while the sword was double-edged, the wielder's purpose was singular: to kill him. And for Wayne, both edges of the sword were equally lethal.

Because his expectation that Wayne would be unable to harm him was limited to the first layer of Wayne's plan.

Wayne's plan never goes beyond the first layer.

Wien pretended not to notice the Earl of Princeton's gritting reply. He nodded with satisfaction, patted the bowing nobleman Waiva on the shoulder, and instructed:

"That's good. Then, my loyal Earl of Princeton, call someone to redecorate your house—no, I should say the Northern King's Palace. And while you're at it, get me a computer."

Wayne paused, then added:

"Use your money."

The Earl of Princeton's face visibly changed from white to red to green, and finally, he practically spat out the syllables of submission through clenched teeth:

"......clear."

........

Victoria, the newly renovated "King of the North's Temporary Palace," bedroom.

Wayne locked the door, turned around, looked at Kal'tsit who had come to visit late at night, and asked:

"Do you riddle tellers like to launch night raids?"

"As far as I know, a night raid has a special meaning."

Kal'tsit mercilessly exposed the subtle, opportunistic wording in Wayne's statement, saying,

"I'm not here for a night raid, I'm here to borrow your computer."

"Can I borrow your computer?"

Wayne glanced at the laptop on the brand-new wooden table and the flashing webcam next to it, hesitated for a moment, and asked:

What do you want to do?

"I've been away from Kazdel for a while now, I need to contact Princess Theresa."

Kal'tsit replied.

She sneaked out, and even took Princess Theresa's medal along the way. Judging by the time, if she doesn't make a phone call or send a message to explain herself, she'll definitely be in big trouble if Princess Theresa finds out.

Wayne blinked in surprise: "It's that simple?"

Kal'tsit nodded: "It's that simple."

Unexpectedly, Wayne shrugged and said, "Then you can go back. You've achieved your goal."

He walked to the computer, reopened the laptop, and stared at Theresa's smiling figure on the lit screen. Kal'tsit fell silent.

Kal'tsit?

Theresa spoke first.

Under Wayne's gaze, Kal'tsit suddenly trembled, the lynx's long ears and the tip of its little tail stood erect, and it answered at attention:

"It's me, Theresa!"

Theresa tilted her head, squinted her eyes, and asked in confusion:

"why?"

“I’ve contacted Kazdel so many times, but you’re never there.”

"How could she appear in Victoria so late at night, in Mr. Bruce's room?"

This was the first time Wayne had ever seen Kal'tsit so panicked. She waved her hands, stammering as if trying to say something, but her usually calm and clear mind was now in complete disarray, and she could only stammer incoherently:

"Theresia, let me explain, I..."

After teasing Kal'tsit a little, Theresa shook her head and said:

"Alright, just kidding, Kal'tsit. I overheard your conversation with Mr. Bruce. Were you trying to let me know you were safe? I did receive your message."

Kal'tsit was stunned for a moment, then finally breathed a sigh of relief, giving Theresa a slightly resentful glare:

“Theresia! You really are…”

"Really what?" Theresa smiled. "Are you going to explain to me where my medal went?"

Kal'tsit promptly backed down and shut her mouth. But Theresa continued speaking:

"When you get back, you need to give me a proper explanation for letting mon3tr steal my medal while I was taking a shower."

Kal'tsit nodded dejectedly.

Wayne, standing to the side, couldn't help but laugh as he imagined Kal'tsit remotely controlling the several-meter-tall Originium creature to sneak into the laundry room and steal the medals like a puppy.

Then Theresa immediately turned her gaze to him, squinting as she said:

“Kal'tsit can’t give you a night raid, but I can. Would you like to try, Mr. Bruce? I’ll let Vina watch the whole thing.”

Under Kal'tsit's gaze, Wayne trembled and quickly shook his head, saying:

"No, no, forget it, Theresa, forget it."

My slightly disappointed mood has improved.

What are you looking at? You can't do anything about Princess Theresa either.

Wayne noticed Kal'tsit's gaze and glared back at her: